Alpha and Omega

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Revelation 22. 12 - 14

In my section of the world, two pillars of our community have fallen in the last month, and large groups of family and friends have come together to celebrate their lives and to mark their beginnings and their endings...on this earth that is.

Tommy and Helen touched lives everywhere they went. They loved their families and friends with vigor, and they lived their lives the same way. The celebrations of their lives were filled with testimonies to their legacies heard through the voices of their children, grandchildren and community leaders. Though the services were different in some ways, the messages were consistent...God is our Alpha and our Omega, our beginning and our end, our hope and our salvation. And though Tommy and Helen are gone from this life, they live on in life eternal, fully restored and on the cyclical wheel of Creation...where we are all promised a place.

As Jesus said to his disciples in the gospel of John appointed for today, "The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one." We are all one in this magnificent kingdom, and I find great comfort in knowing that Tommy and Helen have gone ahead to complete the great cycle, at one with the Triune God who makes all things new.

Our community may quake a bit as it recovers from these two losses, but their legacies will stretch on to the end of time leaving crumbs and memories all along the way for us to follow and cherish.

Fair winds, dear ones.